Article: Immuno-taxonomy and the reconstruction of brachiopod phylogeny

The proposed use of immuno-taxonomy of brachiopod shells for the reconstruction of brachiopod phylogeny is analysed for its possible contribution to genealogical systematics and for the validity of its principal conceptual and methodological foundations. It is concluded that brachiopod immuno-taxonomy, as so far described, departs from important norms of immuno-taxonomic and scientific procedures and can be of only limited utility in systematics.